YORK artist Lesley Birch is displaying new printmaking pieces in a solo show in Leeds.

Travels this year to Islay in Scotland and the West Coast of Ireland have inspired the exhibition Remote, on show at Leeds Craft and Design Centre, City Art Gallery, The Headrow.

Lesley, who works from PICA Studios in Grape Lane, York, and her home studio, is exhibiting more than 25 expressive landscapes with sweeping skies and wild shores.

"I’m excited to be having my first-ever proper print show here in Yorkshire," she says. "It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time in this particular gallery and I was really chuffed when it happened."

Lesley learned printmaking in Cambridge, then at Harrogate College, gaining a Highly Commended in 2007 at the Mercer Gallery, Harrogate.

In 2010, Terry Brett, of Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, spotted her expressive pieces at York Open Studios and duly hosted a show.

Lesley says: “I would use presses at St Peter’s School, where I worked at the time, and never thought I’d actually own my own printing press. But this year I was lucky to be able to invest in a lovely press from Hawthorn Printmakers, just ten miles up the road from York.”

Favouring a muted, earthy palette for her latest work, Lesley exploits the media of printmaking to suit her painterly style. “Monotype fits my purpose well," she says. "I can overlay brush marks on the plate again and again. And the white of the paper is as important to me as the image itself: just that leaving of space allows the eye to rest before darting around again.”

You can meet Lesley at Leeds Craft and Design Centre gallery on August 24, from 1pm to 3pm, when she will be showing her sketchbooks discussing her work.

Remote - From Islay To Ireland runs until October 26. Opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm.